John Dale was born in Philadelphia in 1919 and graduated from high school in Montclair, New Jersey where his father was president of a coal company.  He entered the College in September 1936 with the class of 1940 but transferred to Amherst College after his freshman year.  He was tapped as a member of Beta Theta Pi during that year. 

Finishing his degree at Amherst in 1940 he set out for a career in banking but enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps the day after Pearl Harbor.  He won his wings on July 26, 1942 and then trained on B-24 Liberator bombers.  In December, 1942, he joined the 480th Anti-Submarine Group in French Morocco then flying against German submarines in the Battle of the Atlantic with such success as to earn it later the coveted Presidential Unit Citation. 

On May 11, 1943, first pilot Dale and five others in his ten man crew were killed when their B-24 crashed on take off from their home base.  Lt. Dale had previously been awarded an Air Medal. He was twenty four years old.